


Hot Chocolate

by NotADragon



Category: SKAM (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-11
Updated: 2018-03-18
Packaged: 2018-11-30 14:45:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 19,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11465787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotADragon/pseuds/NotADragon
Summary: Noorhelm Coffee Shop AU set in London.Literally nothing is remotely canon.





	1. Chapter 1

Noora was perfectly used to inappropriate behavior from patrons. The old men who thought it was okay to call her sweetheart. It wasn’t okay. It was creepy. The guys her age who tried to compliment her lipstick. Also creepy. The business men who tried grab her hand as she handed them their drinks. Very creepy.

Luckily, her shift manager, Sana, was firmly on Noora’s side and accepted no shit from anyone. While Noora might tell them off, Sana was likely to kick them out altogether if they tried to report Noora to her.

He walked in to the shop, tall, handsome and brooding. Seriously, Noora thought, how much angst do you have to have to wear your hood up indoors? It wasn’t even raining outside or anything, which was somewhat surprising for London.

She pushed off the back counter that she had been leaning against and waited for him at the till.

“What can I get for you?”

“Wow.”

He didn’t say anything else. He just stood there, openly looking her up and down.

“What can I get for you?”

“You’re fucking beautiful.”

Noora rolled her eyes. “Hitting on the barista. What a fucking cliché. Now, do you want a drink or not?”

Despite the insult, despite her glare, he didn’t look at all shamed or put in his place. Instead, he was smiling at her, seemingly amused.

“I’ll take a large dark roast black.”

“Name?”

He leaned a little over the counter towards her. Who the hell did this guy think he was? “So you want to get to know me?”

“It’s for your drink. Or I can just write ‘asshole’ on the lid instead if you want?”

“William.”

She scribbled some letters on the side of a cup and rang up his order for him. She could feel him watching her as she went and poured his coffee, pressing a lid on top.

She turned around and sure enough he was waiting at the delivery end of the counter, watching her every move.

“Dark roast for Willhelm,” she called out, much louder than required.

“It’s William.” He took the coffee that she held outstretched to him. It was a good thing he didn’t try to touch her as she was out of patience with this guy. With the whole day really.

“Oops, I must have misheard.” Noora shrugged and turned her back on him to go find herself something to do over by the baked goods. As she tried to choose what she felt like taking home today at the end of her shift, she heard the front door open and close. He was gone.

“Is it just me or were you meaner than usual?” Sana walked out of the back room and started helping Noora clean up.

“You weren’t here to defend me. I had to defend myself.” The blueberry scone looked good, but Noora settled on the banana bread. She packed a piece up and slipped it into her purse.

“I would have appeared if you needed me. The guy seems like an ass.”

“Seriously. I hope he doesn’t become a regular.”

“It was William, right? Tall guy? Might be charming if he wasn’t so cocky?”

Noora turned slowly to face Sana. That description seemed spot on. “Why do you know him?”

“He _is_ a regular. Usually earlier in the day before you get here. Brings different girls with him every so often. Always pays for them. Never tries to flirt with me though.”

“It’s the purple lipstick. It intimidates men.”

“I don’t know, they don’t seem intimidated by your red lips very often.”

“I wish they were. Maybe I need to change colours.”

“You’re welcome to try mine, but I don’t know if it will suit you. You haven’t really mastered the icy stare yet that you need to go with it.”

That was true. Her glare was good, but Sana’s was much better. “I’ll work on it.”

***

It was unusual to have a rush so close to closing time. Instead of their normal clean up routine, Sana was taking orders while Noora made the drinks. A nonfat latte. A small green tea. A large dark roast black. None of them made an impression on Noora until she was putting the lid on the last drink and checked the name.

Shit. Sure enough, when she turned around she saw him standing, waiting, watching her. She had to walk over to him, but tried to not make eye contact. She could feel his gaze though, locked on her.

She pretended to search around the coffee shop, as if anyone else was left to be waiting on a drink five minutes before close. There wasn’t.

“Dark roast for Willhelm,” she called.

And he grinned at her. The fool broke out in a ridiculous grin. It was obviously genuine, it almost disarmed her. And yet, she couldn’t break. She had to keep a straight face. She tried to remember just how much of an ass he had been the other night as she held out his drink towards him.

“You remember me.”

Noora scoffed. He took his drink and she turned around to walk away.

“Let me buy you dinner.”

She spun back around. “What?!”

“Let. Me. Buy. You. Dinner.”

“Why on earth would you think I would go to dinner with you? I don’t know you and you’re an asshole.”

“You can’t know I’m an asshole and also not know me.”

The grin was gone, replaced with what she was sure was his standard charming smile with just a bit of a smirk. It was infuriating. He was so cocky. So full of himself.

“Me giving you coffee is just me doing my job. It isn’t me flirting with you. It isn’t me pining for a dinner invitation.”

“You don’t need to pine because I already invited you. And you can flirt with me at dinner where someone else can bring us both drinks.”

“I’m not getting dinner with you,” she spluttered.

“Let me know when you change your mind.”

He just turned around and walked right out, leaving Noora gaping at his retreating figure.

“I should probably reprimand you or something for calling a customer an asshole.” Sana’s voice snapped Noora back to her surroundings.

“I’ve heard you say worse on several occasions,” she replied.

Sana nodded thoughtfully. “Yeah, but technically I am your supervisor so, what are you going to do about it?”

“Take note and copy your example.”

Sana laughed a little. “Fair enough. Go change the sign out front to ‘closed’ so that we can get out of here.”

***

Noora was on edge all through her shift on Friday. Every time the door opened, she quickly glanced towards it and heaved a sigh of relief every time it wasn’t William walking through the door. She tried to justify how she just couldn’t get him out of her mind. His behavior had been completely inappropriate and not at all okay. But he wasn’t the first customer that had hit on her. Nor was he the most insistent or creepiest. And she didn’t spend her time thinking or worrying about any of those customers. So why couldn’t she stop looking for him all evening?

It couldn’t have anything to do with the fact that he was actually pretty handsome in a completely predictable type of way. Or that his grin was pretty damn cute. There had to be some other reason and Noora was sure she would figure it out. And then she would be able to stop thinking of him.

Or not. He strutted inside, twenty minutes before closing. She had to do her job, but Noora was determined to not let him faze her any more than normal.

She tried to steel herself with her most indifferent look. “What can I get for you?”

The smile he was giving her was not going to affect her. Noora was determined to not appreciate it at all. She was sure he gave it to all the girls anyways.

“Large dark roast black.”

“Name?”

“You don’t remember?”

Noora looked up from the cup she was writing on and glared at him. She wasn’t going to dignify that with a response. They both knew that she knew his name. She wrote ‘Willhelm’.

As she rang up the coffee on the till she asked, “Would you like to donate £1 to help save the rainforest?”

“What?”

She pointed at a sign in front of the till that had been placed there that morning. Apparently the chain had just started a new partnership with a charity dealing with deforestation in countries where their coffee beans were grown. Sana had told her that they were now expected to ask every customer if they wished to donate a pound for every order until the end of the summer.

“Oh, no.” He replied after a second. Clearly he hadn’t even read the whole explanation on the sign in that time. His credit card hoovered over the credit machine, ready to tap to pay. “Have you changed your mind yet?”

The dinner invitation. Noora rolled her eyes. “Why would I want to get dinner with a guy who doesn’t even care about the environment?”

His expression changed immediately, confused, finally off his game for once. “Because I don’t want to donate a quid, I don’t care?”

“Deforestation is a real problem. And the coffee industry has a huge impact on that. You seem to be part of the problem.”

“How do you know I don’t do other things to make up for the impact? Maybe I just don’t like this particular charity. Maybe I give donations to other environment causes in denominations larger than one quid.”

Noora knew she should let this go. Most people didn’t donate and she hadn’t given anyone else a hard time that day. But she just couldn’t. “I find that highly unlikely. You waste a disposable coffee cup that isn’t even recyclable every time you come in here. Doesn’t seem like the environment is a priority for you.”

Now it was his turn to roll his eyes. She just stared back, completely unimpressed. With a sigh, he glanced around the front of the shop and then walked over to the shelf of mugs and coffee beans for sale. He grabbed one of the travel mugs.

“Here,” he put in on the counter between them. “I’ll take this too.”

She added it to his total and he tapped his card.

Sana had already finished grabbing his coffee and was putting the lid on. Noora backed away from the till as Sana called out “Willhelm?”

He gave her a slightly unimpressed look.

“I just read out what’s written,” she shrugged as he handed him the cup.

He left, travel mug in one hand, hot coffee in the other.

“Didn’t know you cared that much about the environment,” Sana mumbled.

“I just – I mean – it’s important. The environment, that is,” Noora finished weakly.

Sana wasn’t buying it, but let it drop.

***

Noora had Saturdays off, but to pick up some extra money she had taken a Sunday morning shift for the summer. It wasn’t at all the same as her weekday shifts. They were a lot busier, and Sana wasn’t there to have her back. Families came in on weekends. Her shift manager prioritized being friendly with customers over putting guys in their place by calling them pricks. It was much worse.

Her shift ended without William showing up and Noora let out a breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding in all morning. She had been worried she would have to be actually friendly to him and that it would give him the wrong idea.

But on Monday night, he was back, travel mug in hand.

And Tuesday.

And Wednesday.

And Thursday.

Every day the same thing. Same order. Same charming smile. He mostly stuck to pleasantries. Hello. How are you doing? Thanks.

Noora responded as little as possible. What can I get you? Fine. No response at all.

Friday rolled around just the same as the day before. Fifteen minutes before close, in he walked. Hood up. Travel mug in hand. Hair partially covering one eye. Oozing confidence.

“Hi.”

“What can I get you?”

He reached out to hand her the travel mug, “Can’t we have a different conversation? You know my order anyways.”

“Nope.” She put his order in and walked away to fill the mug.

He was waiting for her at the other end of the counter and as soon as she started walking towards him with his drink, he started up again. “If you won’t even talk to me, how am I supposed to convince you to get dinner with me?”

“You’re not,” she snapped, shoving the drink into his hand. “You’re supposed to leave me the hell alone.”

He ran one hand through his hair, pushing his hood back off his head in the process. “Fine, give me your work schedule.”

“Excuse me?!” Noora’s eyebrows shot up. “Instead of leaving me alone, you want me to help you stalk me better? What the fuck is wrong with you?!”

He just blinked at her, his expression blank. “I can’t leave you alone if I am going to accidentally run in to you. And I like the dark roast here. So give me your schedule, and you will never see me again.”

As he spoke, she felt herself deflating. That actually made a lot of sense. If he meant it, then that would solve her problem of looking at the door every time it opened to see if it was him. Or he could be playing her and he might end up showing up for every single one of her shifts.

Warily, she examined him for his sincerity. He stood there calmly, meeting her gaze, but nothing more. “Is that a promise?”

“Yes.”

She hesitated a moment more. “Weekdays, four ‘til close. And all summer, Sunday eight til four.”  

He didn’t say a word. He just turned around, pulling his hood back up, and walked out.

Noora watched the door close behind him as he turned left, walking past the shop windows and out of sight.

***

And he didn’t show up on Sunday. Noora almost expected him to. She kept watching the door. But her shift came and went, and she went home again. She hadn’t seen him on Sundays before though anyways.

The clock ticked by on Monday. 7:00pm. 7:30pm. 7:40pm. 7:45pm. 7:50pm. 7:52pm. 7:56pm. 7:59pm.

At 8:02pm, Sana changed the sign on the front door to ‘Closed’. No William.

Tuesday went by.

Wednesday.

Thursday.

Friday.

No William.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I kind of know where this is going but it isn't totally plotted out. It should get better. It is definitely Noorhelm end game though and I'll probably bring in more people. I'll update the tags when I do.


	2. Chapter 2

By the next Monday, Noora was convinced that William was actually going to keep his promise. She was never going to see him again. She wanted to ask Sana if he was coming in at other times. Sana had said he was a regular when he started showing up on Noora’s shifts. She couldn’t bring herself to ask though. She didn’t really want to admit to Sana that she was still thinking about a guy who had been kind of an ass just because he was also kind of cute.

Things were back to their old normal. Customers were mostly few and far between. They were the type of clientele who maybe hung out with a friend or did homework. Sana and Noora spent their time leaning against the back counter, watching over their domain, chatting.

Until, that is, Sana suddenly stood up and announced “We don’t give out free food so you might as well just leave.”

Confused, Noora checked out who had walked in. There were two of them, a taller one in a snapback and a shorter one with a bit of a stripe shaved in his short hair. Both were pretty cute and hadn’t said a word, so Noora didn’t immediately understand why Sana reacted so quickly.

“Chill sis, we’re paying customers today.”

That made more sense. Noora remembered Sana had mentioned that she had a couple of brothers before and even though she was an only child, Noora knew how siblings could be.

The other one smiled at Sana, “We wouldn’t want to get you in trouble or anything anyways, by asking you for free stuff.”

“I know you wouldn’t,” Sana said. “Elias on the other hand…”

“Hey, don’t besmirch my good name,” complained the brother. “You haven’t even asked us for our orders yet, so what kind of employee are you anyways?”

Noora didn’t need be able to see Sana’s face to know she was giving Elias her regular icy look. “What do you want?”

“Just a couple of iced coffees,” the other one said.

While Sana was charging them, Noora went to go get started on their drinks. When she handed them to the guys, Elias smiled at her. The other guy was smiling too, but it wasn’t at Noora. Sana wasn’t even looking in their direction to notice it. In fact, she had made herself scarce in the back room.

The guys went and sat down in a couple of arm chairs over by the window. Soon after, Sana emerge again, carrying a new bag of light roast beans. She put it next the unopened bag of light roast beans that was already sitting under the front counter.

As Sana stood up, Noora took the opportunity to give her a little hip check. “So. That’s your brother huh?”

“Yeah, one of them. Elias.” Sana walked over to the baked goods cabinet and Noora followed behind her.

“And who’s the guy with him?” Noora whispered.

Sana’s eyes flicked away from Noora and she started fidgeting with her hijab a little. “That’s his friend.”

“Does that friend have a name?” She couldn’t keep the teasing tone out of her voice.

“Yousef,” Sana said softly, without looking away from the banana nut muffins.

“Ahh. Okay. And why does Yousef keep glancing over here every ten seconds?”

“Huh?” Sana straighted up abruptly, facing Noora with her back to the guys.

Noora smiled and tried to keep from laughing. “I swear. Like clockwork.” She peeked over Sana’s shoulder and sure enough, he was looking at them. As soon as his eyes met Noora’s, he turned back to talking with Elias.

Sana brushed off Noora’s comment. “He must just be looking around since he hasn’t been in here before.”

“Oh, so you’ve noticed that he has never been in here before have you?”

Sana gave Noora her an unimpressed look, and Noora held up her hands in mock surrender.

“Dropping the subject now,” Noora said.

And she did drop the subject. But she also noticed that Sana glanced over at her brother and his friend more than a few times while they finished their iced coffees.

***

“Do you realize that the summer is half gone and we have to go back to uni soon?”

Sana shrugged. “I have to keep reviewing through the summer anyways. It isn’t a big change for me from the fall.”

“True, I forget that you are studying medicine. It seems so weird that you manage to balance that and a job,” Noora said.

“The job just started out as a way for me to see what it was like to be a normal teen. I’ll probably have to cut back my hours next year and probably won’t be able to work next summer at all.”

Noora hugged Sana, clinging to her in mock despair. “How can you leave me? What am I supposed to do without you?”

Sana laugh and pried Noora’s arms off. “I expect that you’ll take my job and get a bit of a raise to go with it. And as long as you have mastered my stare by the time I leave, you’ll be fine.”

“The raise does sound nice,” Noora said. “You’ll still make time to hang out with me though, right?”

“Of course,” Sana nodded. “We’re lipstick buddies after all.”

And then their quiet Wednesday evening was interrupted when a girl burst through the door, crying. Without ordering anything, she flung herself into one of the armchairs by the fireplace and continued to sob.

Sana looked at Noora. Noora looked at Sana.

“I’ve got it,” Noora said quietly.

She walked around the counter and approached the girl. Noora couldn’t see much of her. The girl had her face in her hands and her long brown hair was falling forward, giving her even more cover from the world.

Noora wanted to ask if she was okay, but obviously she wasn’t.

“Hi.”

No response.

“Do you like whipped cream?”

The mass of hair and hands nodded. Noora could work with that.

She went back behind the counter and pulled out her purse. She set out her package of tissues and went to grab a cup.

“She is going to be okay?” asked Sana.

“I haven’t got that far yet,” Noora replied. The noise of steaming the milk helped to cover their hushed conversation in case the girl was listening. “Are you okay to cover while I take a few minutes and see if I can help her with anything?”

“Well, I may get a little overwhelmed by this crowd,” Sana said, gesturing at the otherwise empty shop. “I think I’ll manage somehow though.”

Noora grabbed a spoon to stir the drink. She had left enough room for a decent amount of whipped cream. Finally, she added some chocolate shavings on top for good measure.

Sitting down in the arm chair across from the girl, Noora set the drink and the tissues on the coffee table in between them.

“These should help with, well, with whatever.”

The girl sniffled and raised her head a little to look at the offerings.

“Hot chocolate,” Noora added.

That got the tiniest smile from the girl as she sat up properly and wiped one eye with the back of her hand. Luckily, she didn’t seem to be wearing any makeup to smudge, but her eyes were red and puffy from crying.

“Thanks,” she said. “I don’t actually have my wallet though.”

Noora shook her head. “It’s on the house, don’t worry about it.”

She sat and waited while the girl tested the hot chocolate. She looked like she was nineteen or twenty, right around Noora’s age. She wasn’t in business clothes anyways, so she couldn’t be coming from an office job on a Wednesday evening in leggings and a baggy t-shirt. Probably a student who could afford to take the summer off from working, Noora guessed.

“Sorry for just running in here to crash. Someone’s coming to get me, so I shouldn’t be here for too long. This hot chocolate’s great by the way.”

“It’s my favourite,” Noora said.

The girl gave her a proper smile in return. “Mine too. I’m Amalie, by the way.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I don’t normally lie about my name, expect to guys in a bars.”

“No, it’s just, that’s my name too. My middle name anyways. I’m Noora Amalie Sætre.”

“Oh my god, that’s awesome. I never get to meet other ‘Amalie’s!”

“Yeah same here.” Same name, same favourite drink. Noora was grateful for the coincidences that seemed to be distracting the other girl from whatever had been bothering her. “Would you like some company until your person gets here?”

“Sure. If you don’t have anything else you are supposed to be doing?”

“Nope, I’m fine for a bit.”

“Sorry again for coming in here crying. It’s just…”

Noora put out a hand to stop her. “Hey, we have all had those days. I have certainly had enough of my own. Don’t feel bad about it.”

“I know. Everything was fine today, but then my brother called. And he just…” Amalie was talking into her drink, not making eye contact. “He’s just an awful person, you know? But he’s family so I keep giving him another chance, and then he goes and says – I just wish he was different. Better.”

Heartbreak from family was a topic that Noora was all too familiar with. “I get it. Family is complicated. Sometimes it’s for the best though to put some space between you. Just because you are related to someone, doesn’t mean you have to keep them in your life. You have to look after yourself.”

The girls sat there, both lost in their own thoughts.

Amalie broke the silence first. “I hate this song.”

They always kept the radio on low over the speakers. Noora had mostly learned to tune it out as white noise, but she focused in now. “You hate Justin Beiber?”

“Doesn’t everyone?”

Noora looked away. “He might be my guilty pleasure.”

Amalie laughed a little. “Oops, sorry. I didn’t mean to accidentally insult you.”

Noora tossed her hair a little in mock dramatics. “It’s fine. Whatever. I’ll get over it.”

“Oh uh, my brother’s here.”

Snapping her head towards the door, Noora couldn’t figure out why the brother who had caused this pain would be showing up to harass his sister more. What kind of jackass was this guy anywa –

Fuck. Opening the front door was Amalie’s brother, William.

Before she could even process what she was doing, Noora was out of her seat and most of the way across the shop. She stood in front of William, blocking his path to his sister. Then again, he had stopped walking as soon as they made eye contact. He just froze in place, two steps inside, the door swinging close behind him.

“You need to leave. Now.”

Hands on her hips, chin up, Noora did her best to seem imposing. A barrier between him and his sister.

William just stared back at her, unblinking as the moment stretched and stretched. He broke first, moving to step around her. “I’m leaving just as soon as I – ”.

Noora stepped to the side with him, blocking his away again, but also bringing them closer together. Much closer than they had ever been with a counter between them. So close she could count his eyelashes.

“You’re leaving now.” She let her anger take over. “How dare you even come here?! You think your sister wants to see you right now? After everything you’ve done? Get the fuck out.”

“Uhh Noora,” Amalie had walked up behind Noora, off to the side. “This is actually my other brother.”

Noora’s brain seemed to process the words in slow motion. Other. Brother. The problem wasn’t William. And yet, her eyes were still locked with his, her face tiled up towards him.

She took half a step backwards, turning towards Amalie as she did. “Other brother?”

“Yeah, not the one I was talking about. This is actually who was coming to pick me up.”

“Oh.”

William turned his attention to his sister. “Are you okay? Is this about him? The reason you called me?” His voice had turned to ice. Noora had never heard him use a tone remotely close to that, even when she was calling him a stalker and an asshole.

“Can we talk about it when we get home?”

William nodded. “Sure, let’s go then. Did you want to get anything on the way home?”

They started walking in step together towards the door. “Nah, I’m good. Noora already got me a hot chocolate.” Amalie turned back towards her, “Seriously, thanks again. It was nice meeting you.”

“You too. Come back any time.”

As Amalie started heading out again, William was looking at Noora. Again. This time his gaze seemed more appraising. Grateful? Longing? No, Noora had to be imagining it. She was examining him too closely. Shit, actually she was staring.

She retreated back to Sana who had been quietly watching everything unfold from her perch sitting on the counter. She definitely wasn’t allowed to sit like that according to corporate policy.

“So that was William’s little sister? Makes sense I guess,” Sana said. “I’ve seen them come in here together before I think.”

“Wait, you knew and you didn’t tell me?”

Sana raised an eyebrow. Honestly, even Noora didn’t know exactly what she was accusing Sana of. “No, like I just said, I didn’t know she was his sister. And I didn’t recognize her until I saw the two of them together. They look a little alike, don’t you think? Their noses anyways. And the posh accent too.”

“Hmm yeah, maybe.”

Noora’s head felt foggy. She didn’t know what to think about what had just happened. How did she reconcile what she thought of William, what Sana had said about him always having a different girl, with the fact that he was the kind of big brother that his sister ran to in hard times? Even just seeing him again…

Fuck. And Noora had just managed to start forgetting about him. Dammit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More to come at some point.  
> Also, I'm a sucker for Yousana and couldn't help sneaking them in. Honestly, in any AU those two are still soulmates.


	3. Chapter 3

It was actually a little ridiculous how much time Noora spent just leaning against the counter. The evening shift was always so quiet, she had no idea why the owner bothered to schedule two of them to work it. They certainly didn’t need two people, but neither Noora nor Sana were ever going to mention that. Neither of them were dumb enough to turn down the easy money.

She was mentally estimating just how much time per shift she spent doing absolutely nothing in order to calculate how many pounds per week she was paid to lean when the front door opened.

Noora recognized him. She knew she had seen him before, it just took her a second to figure out who he was. Sana’s brother’s friend from the week before. His name was… Yousef. It was definitely Yousef. And by the time Noora had remembered that, he was standing right in front of her, not so subtly looking around the shop.

She couldn’t stop herself from smiling just a little. She could guess exactly who he was looking for.

“Did you come to see Sana?” she asked.

“What?” he snapped his attention towards Noora. “No, I uhh just umm came to get a drink. An iced coffee.”

The guy was hopeless, terrible at pretending that he wasn’t just here for Sana.

“Lucky for you then, we do make iced coffee. But actually, I think it’s time for my break. Just give me a second and I’ll get someone else to help you.”

Walking away from Yousef and into the back room, Noora worked to keep a straight face. “Oh Sana,” she called as soon as the door closed behind her.

Her friend appeared from behind one of the shelves, holding her phone a little away from her head. “I’m busy. What is it?”

“Come quick, I need your help with a customer.”

Noora walked out before Sana could object farther. Yousef was awkwardly looking around the empty shop, waiting.

“I’m so sorry about the wait,” Noora said with her best customer service voice. “Bear with me, it will just be one more moment. I promise, this iced coffee will be worth the wait.”

Yousef ran one hand through his hair, almost like a nervous habit. “Yeah, no problem. I understand.”

And then his eyes snapped towards the door opening behind Noora. The door Sana was walking through. The door Sana walked through and stopped just in front of as she stared back at Yousef.

Noora looked back and forth between the two. Oh, they were both goners, Noora could tell. It was obvious.

It was Sana who shook herself out of it first, and turned her attention to Noora. “You said you needed me?”

“Yeah, sorry,” Noora said sweetly. She knew Sana wasn’t buying the tone at all. “I realized I’m overdue for my break. You won’t mind covering for ten minutes, right?”

Ignoring the glare from Sana, Noora slowly backed away towards her purse. She slipped her apron off over her head, setting it down on the counter. She grabbed her purse and skittered towards the front door before Sana could object.

“Hi,” was all she caught Sana saying before she hurried out the front door. She resisted looking back in the window to see how things progressed and instead headed around the corner of the building out of sight.

Technically, Noora did get a break during her shift. However, since the coffee shop was usually so quiet and Noora didn’t have much to be doing anyways, she almost never took her break. Sana always took her break right when Noora showed up in the afternoon, but that was because Sana actually worked a full eight hour day as shift supervisor in the summer.

London was grey as usual, the clouds blocking out the evening sun. At least it wasn’t raining. There was a park just a block away through where Noora planned to kill the rest of her break, checking in with her roommates and other friends on her phone. And then she could check and see if Sana made any progress with her brother’s cute friend. That was the plan until she turned the corner and bodily ran into someone walking the other way.

“Faen,” Noora swore, always reacting in her native Norwegian in times of surprise. “Shit, I’m sorry.”

She took half a step back away from the torso that she had slammed into. A rather toned torso clad in a well fitted white sweater. She couldn’t help but notice. And then she looked up.

“Faen.”

William.

William was standing right in front of her. She had just crashed into him and now there he was. What were the chances?

She couldn’t decide if she should just walk away of say something. After she had yelled at him, she felt like she at least owed it to him to be polite now. But she was also the one who had made him promise that she would never see him again. So she should have probably just walked away. But also this was now the second time she was seeing him. Did that mean something? And he wasn’t walking away. He was just standing there. Did that damn hair of his ever fall properly away from him face? She wanted to move it out of his eye. And now she was standing there way too long, it was getting ridiculous.

She bit the bullet. “Hi.” She brushed the hair that had gotten caught against her lipstick when they crashed away from her face.

He slipped his hands into his jean pockets, looking her over. “Hi.”

Noora knew she should have just walked away. But her feet disagreed, staying planted to the pavement.

“How’s your sister?”

“She’s okay.”

“Good, I’m glad.”

She didn’t know what else to say. She didn’t even know if she wanted to say anything else to him. He didn’t seem to have anything to say either, as the silence stretched between them.

“Well, I should go,” she said, gesturing vaguely at the park behind him.

He still didn’t say anything.

“Okay, well then, uhh, bye.” She started to walk past him, entirely confused by his lack of response.

“Goodbye, Noora Amalie Sætre.”

She stopped and looked back up on him, a ridiculous grin spreading across his face.

“She told you?”

He nodded. “She did. She also told me you made her favourite drink for her and kept her company. Thanks.”

“Of course. I didn’t know she was your sister. Not that I wouldn’t have done it anyways. I would have. But I just mean…” God, Noora had no idea what she meant. She was rambling. Fuck. “I’m just glad she is doing better.”

She thought that smile he was giving her, as she stumbled through her words, might just be the death of her. It was not an overly charming smile for show. It was actually sweet and genuine.

“I’m going to,” she gestured yet again at the park. She had already done this once. She didn’t think this encounter could get any weirder. “Bye.”

She hurried away before she could stammer or ramble anymore. She found an empty bench and sat herself down, taking her phone out of her purse. Noora opened the BBC app and tried to start reading the top stories, but she realized half way through the second article that she wasn’t actually absorbing any of the info. Her eyes were just skimming the words while her brain was still whirling.

Resisting the urge to huff, she shoved her phone away. It was probably about time to head back anyways, but she didn’t really want to interrupt Sana and Yousef. She was technically getting paid to work though, so she knew she should probably at least be in the shop.

She paid much more attention on the walk back, so that this time she didn’t slam into anybody. And if she maybe looked around a bit more than normal to see if anyone was still in the area, well now there wasn’t really any harm in that.

Looking in the windows as she approached, Noora could see that the shop was empty except for Sana behind the counter with her back to the door.

Sana didn’t even look to see who it was entering. “I should fire you.”

“You don’t have the authority to fire me. And even if you did, you can’t fire me for taking a break I’m legally entitled to. Where’s Yousef?”

Sana went from looking annoyed to blushing in an instant. “He only came to get a coffee. He left.”

“Only came to grab a coffee?” Noora made sure that Sana saw her exaggerated eye roll. “Yeah, sure.”

She picked up her apron, stashed her bag away, and tried to stop thinking about how damn good William looked in that sweater.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this chapter doesn't have a ton of Noorhelm and it a tad short for me, but I wanted to get something out and I've been busy with work and life. Anyways, thanks for reading <3 More will be coming


	4. Chapter 4

It had seemed like the right decision at the time. But that was yesterday, and now it was Monday and 5:30am and Noora was awake and dressed. She wasn’t used to it. She never woke up this early. Normally, to make up for her Sunday shift, she let herself lay around in bed longer on Mondays. She was out of routine. That would have to change since classes were going to start again in a couple weeks, but Noora had been planning to take full advantage of sleep time until then. She sure as hell didn’t mean to start waking up at 5:00am.

But Sana had asked so nicely. Another barista had fallen sick and was going to be out for a few days. There was no one else to cover and Sana had said she would take the evening shift alone if Noora could just work the day shift instead. It was longer hours and busier work, but since uni hadn’t started up yet, Noora had said yes.

And she was already regretting it as she poured herself a cup of tea in her kitchen. Her flatmates were still sleeping, like most people at this hour, so she had peace and quiet. That wasn’t always the case in her flat, so she took advantage when it was.

She took a big sip of tea and she opened up her weather app. Rain. No surprise there. If the caffeine in the tea didn’t kick in soon though, Noora was going to be in trouble. Next time, she was going to say no to helping out, no matter how much the shop needed her to fill in.

Noora took a last minute to tidy up the kitchen. She grabbed the empty wine bottle off the table and put it with the recycling. The dirty wine glasses got moved to the sink in hopes they would get washed before she got home. She wasn’t even the one drinking last night, or any night, but often it was easier to just do the washing up herself instead of trying to get either of her flatmates to focus on cleaning. She rinsed out her own mug and left it in the drying rack. Grabbing the lunch she had made last night from the fridge, Noora headed to work.

London was not yet awake, the sun was only just starting to lighten the sky. Not that Noora could see the horizon, London was too tightly packed for that. It still didn’t feel like home to her. She still compared everything to Norway. The days were shortening again, but it didn’t bother her as much given that she knew they would never be as dark here as December back home.

She arrived right at 5:45, the official start of her shift. The lights were on, but the door was locked since the shop didn’t actually open for another fifteen minutes. She knocked on the glass to get the attention of the girl behind the counter grinding beans. The girl didn’t turn around, she probably couldn’t even hear. Noora waited until she took a break to grab more beans and then she knocked again.

The perky blonde’s pony tail whipped around as she turned, saw Noora, and bounded towards the door. The deadbolt turned and the door swung inwards.

“Noora? Right?”

Noora nodded “And you must be Vilde?”

“Yeah! Sana has told me so much about you! Thanks for filling in today. Chris is sick which is totally sucky, but I’m sure she will be better by the weekend as she never misses a party and there is always a party on Fridays. Anyways, do you need some caffeine before we open? Make yourself whatever, I’m just going to finish bringing out the baked goods.”

Noora didn’t know many people who were so damn enthusiastic to be awake before 6:00am, but she guessed that worked well in a coffee shop. Vilde was obviously a diligent employee. She definitely needed another cup of tea herself, and appreciate that Vilde had already done almost all of the morning setup already giving her a few minutes before the rush began.

And when it started, it really started. The sleepy London that Noora had walked through an hour before was long gone by 6:45am and the line in the shop seemed never ending.

At 9:15am, Vilde declared it was time for her lunch break – or more accurately her breakfast break, leaving Noora to staff the shop alone. Despite being down to one barista, the morning rush was tapering off and the line started to decrease in length.

Ring up order. Start the drink. Make sure the payment went through. Ask the next person in line what they want. Finish the first drink. Ring up the next drink. There was a rhythm to it which allowed Noora to really hit her stride.

Until that is, as she was pouring a medium medium roast, she asked over her shoulder for the next order.

“Hey Noora, could we get two medium hot chocolates please?”

Amalie. And next to Amalie was William. She only looked at him for a second. Just long enough to see that he was looking back.

“Sure thing, just give me one minute.”

She stopped pouring the coffee just before the cup started overflowing. She hoped the guy who ordered it didn’t like too much milk. She added a lid and brought it over to him with her customer service smile on. Heading back to the cash, she tried to not let the smile falter despite being acutely aware of William’s attention.

She automatically went to grab a couple of cups, but Amalie stopped her.

“Oh, no we have our own mugs.” Amalie held out two travel mugs to her. She recognized one as the one that she herself had sold William last month, the same as a dozen siting on the far shelf. The other was hot pink.

Noora took both and set them down so that she could ring in the order. “Paying together?”

“Yupp, with credit” Amalie answered.

“Great, you can tap whenever.” She went to go grab milk to start steaming, but kept one ear on the conversation behind her.

“William, you have to actually take out your wallet in order to pay.”

“I’m pretty sure it is your turn to pay.”

“No, it’s definitely your turn.”

“I’m pretty sure it is my turn more often than it should be.”

“Well, you are older and theoretically are closer to having a real job, so it is your turn comes around more often than mine.”

“Fine.”

Noora stirred the milk into the pink mug, then the white, mixing it with the chocolate.

“Do you need a receipt?” she asked over her shoulder.

“I’m okay,” William answered. The first thing he had said to her that day.

“Do you both want whipped cream?”

“Oh, definitely,” said Amalie.

“Okay, I’m back,” Vilde said, appearing in the periphery of Noora’s vision. “Do you want to take your break now?”

“Sure, just a second.” Noora added a large swirl of whipped cream to each mug before putting the canister back in the lower fridge.

A drink in each hand, Noora handed her last order over to the siblings.

“Thanks,” William said, taking the mug from Noora. His hand carefully avoided touching hers in the handoff. His tone was perfectly neutral, not at all hinting at the drama of the month before or the awkward run in last week. Noora wasn’t sure what she had expected. A reaction of some sort, maybe sheepish, maybe cold, maybe back to his flirting. But not neutral.

“Did I hear you have a break now? Did you want to come sit with us for a few minutes?” Amalie’s entire demeanour was so different from the first time Noora had met her. Warm and friendly, as if Noora was already her friend.

“Umm sure? Just let me grab a snack.”

She had packed herself some fruit salad with the plan of making a late lunch when her shift ended after 2:00pm. It didn’t seem like enough though. She had underestimated how hungry she would be after waking up so much earlier than normal and spending all morning on her feet.

“Vilde, I’m going to take some banana nut bread.”

“No problem.”

She filled a mug with water and headed over to the table by the window that William and Amalie had already settled themselves at. One side of the table was up against the glass and Amalie had taken the middle spot, leaving a chair for Noora directly across from William.

“How are you?” Amalie asked as Noora sat down.

“Fine. A little tired actually. I’m not used to working the opening shift. How are you two?” she let her gaze flicker from Amalie to William. Was he ever not looking at her?

“Well, I’m not sobbing in a coffee shop, so I’m relatively good. Or normal anyways. William?”

He raised his eyebrows questioningly at her.

“Noora asked how you are too.”

“I’m fine.”

“Great, be awkward and taciturn. Whatever.” Amalie shook her head and gave Noora a look that said ‘isn’t my brother ridiculous?’

“What brings you two out so early on a Monday?” Noora asked. “Off to work or…?” They didn’t look like they could be heading to most jobs though. William in a leather jacket over a t-shirt and Amalie in a sundress with a messy bun. She ripped off a piece of her banana bread and popped it in her mouth.

“Nah,” said Amalie. “I’m temping during the summer, but I like to take Mondays off. They’re just so stressful, you know? And William is just loafing around so we have a morning hot chocolate tradition on days that we are both around and free.”

“Loafing?” Noora said, her tone maybe a touch more judgemental than she intended.

“That’s one way it could be seen,” he conceded.

“What’s another?” she asked.

He shrugged.

“He’s finding himself,” Amalie said grandly, firmly ignoring the glare he immediately gave her. “Or auditioning for the role of family failure who doesn’t live up to his potential. Right?”

“I’m taking a break,” he replied flatly to his sister before addressing Noora. “Why are you working a morning shift?”

Noora had to finish chewing before she could answer.

“You know her schedule?” said Amalie. “What a stalker.”

“I’m just filling in for someone who’s sick today.”

_Buzz_

The phone sitting on the table in front of Amalie lit up showing an incoming call.

“Sorry, I’m going to take this. Be right back,” she grabbed the phone and fast walked out the front door.

Noora watched William as he watched his sister walk in circles on the pavement, phone to her ear.

“So your shifts haven’t changed?” he turned back to her, giving Noora his full attention.

“Not for August, no. Sana just needed someone to cover and I made the mistake of saying yes.”

“Sorry,” he said, running his hand through his hair.

It took Noora a few seconds to figure out why he was apologizing. “Oh no, it’s not a mistake because of you. It’s just that mornings are not really for me. And 5:00am was awful. It wasn’t – it’s not – it has nothing to do with you.”

He seemed to relax a little, the tension leaving his shoulders as she stammered through her explanation. He didn’t reply though and Noora didn’t want things to get awkward, or stay awkward anyways. She looked around for a conversation topic.

Smiling a little, she pointed at the pink mug on the table. “I see your sister is also environmentally conscience.”

His eyes searched her, as if he was trying to figure out if her statement was a trap of some sort. It wasn’t. She was aiming for more of an olive branch approach. “Actually, I bought it for her.”

“Really? That’s sweet,” she said sincerely.

“She was teasing me for mine. Buying her one got the teasing to stop.”

“You act like you only do things if they are directly in your interest. Just admit it, you wanted to do a nice thing for your sister.”

As she spoke, William started to grin. “I thought you said didn’t know me. And now you’re making assumptions about why I do things. It’s almost like you think about me.”

Noora blushed hard. She opened her mouth to deny it, but Amalie took that moment to breeze back in to the table.

“I fucked up. I thought I was meeting Hillary at 11:00 but apparently it was 10:00 and she said she is waiting. I’ve got to go now.”

“I’ll walk you to the underground.” William stood up and tucked his chair back in.

“Sorry Noora, I’ll see you around, yeah?”

Noora nodded at Amalie. “Yeah, see you around.”

Amalie took her drink and breezed back to the door. William made to follow, but stopped as he passed by Noora. He leaned down, much closer to her than was necessary. Noora stilled instantly at his presence.

“Goodbye Noora,” he said, almost in a whisper. Then he followed his sister, leaving Noora frozen.

What the hell was that? Noora had no idea. But she thought she maybe liked it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took a while to upload. Life is a tad crazy. I hope y'all are liking this!  
> I've just made a new tumblr that I plan to use for fanfic related things. If you are so inclined, you find find me there:  
> https://obviouslynotadragon.tumblr.com/
> 
> More will be coming, but maybe not for a bit while I get through some craziness.


	5. Chapter 5

 For the third goddamn day in a row, Noora’s alarm went off at 5:00am. She briefly considered just chucking her phone at the wall, but then she would have to spend all the extra money she was making this week to repair it. She needed Chris’s immune system to kick in and do its job before the change in sleep cycle wrecked her more.

She dragged her legs to the side of the bed and shoved her feet into the slippers waiting below. Walking out of her bedroom, she headed for the bathroom but her eyes caught on the couch before she got there. Sighing, she turned on the light.

“Eskild!” Her exasperated tone was unfortunately well practiced. Her roommate had jolted awake in the light which showed that he was wearing nothing but boxers while passed out in the living room.

“What the hell Noora,” he said, rubbing his face in sleepy confusion.

“Go sleep in your own room.”

He made no move to get up. “There’s a boy in my bed.”

“Did you bring him home with you or is this like Goldilocks?”

“I brought him home, but I didn’t realize he snores,” Eskild whined.

“Either cuddle or kick him out of the apartment, but I want to watch a show with breakfast.”

“How about I cuddle with you instead?”

Sighing, Noora knew it was easier to concede. “Fine, conditional on you finding some sweatpants.”

Eskild nodded and snuck quietly into his own bedroom while Noora went to start getting ready.

Half an hour later, she realized it had been a mistake to not force him back to his own bed. She needed to be heading out the door, like immediately. Instead, she was trying to pry Eskild’s death grip off of her legs.

“Don’t leave me. Stay home. We never spend time together anymore!”

“Eskild. You are the one who went out last night instead of watching Paradise with me and Linn. And I’m going to be late for work. You need to let go.”

“That’s because it was tight and bright last night, I had to go. But we can make up for it now if you just staaaay.”

“Let go of me and you can go back to sleep on the couch?”

He considered her offer. “Fine, but you have to turn out the light too.”

“Done.”

She reclaimed her legs and Eskild grabbed the blanket they had been sharing to pull over himself. Noora quickly grabbed her purse and lunch, switched her slippers for shoes, and turned off the light.

“Goodnight Eskild.”

“Night Noora,” he replied, sleepily.

She had to hustle on her walk to the coffee shop to avoid being late. The front door wasn’t locked, so Noora let herself in and closed the deadbolt behind her. After she set her purse down, she found Vilde in the backroom, putting bagels onto display trays.

“Oh good, you’re here. I was late this morning and I’m behind so we are going to have to hurry. Sorry.”

Noora got to work.

They didn’t quite have everything set up when it was time to open at 6:00am. Noora kept prepping while Vilde starting serving. With the morning rush, it wasn’t enough. They were behind. They couldn’t get ahead. It was frantic and busy for hours. Vilde pushed both of their lunch breaks back to try and keep on top of things. It wasn’t until after Noora was finished lunch with just two hours left in her shift that things actually began to calm down.

When Sana showed up to take over, Vilde was ecstatic to be heading home.

“Chris said she thinks she should be healthy tomorrow meaning she should be back to work. So you can sleep in Noora. I’ll see you around though, yeah?”

“Yeah, for sure.”

“Great!” Vilde’s ponytail bounced as she nodded and it swung around as she headed out.

Sana had already started working on cleaning dishes that Noora and Vilde had deemed low priority in the chaos.

“Looking forward to having me back in the evenings?”

“Well, I don’t want to get all mushy or anything, but it is pretty boring by myself.”

“You’ve missed me,” Noora stated.

“Maybe,” Sana conceded.

“So you didn’t have anyone else to keep you company these last couple days?”

Sana looked at Noora, totally confused. Noora tried her best to keep an innocent look on her face.

“Who would have been keeping me company?”

Noora shrugged. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe a guy. A tall guy. Cute. Floppy hair. Only has eyes for you. Someone like that perhaps?”

Sana had suddenly found a stain on the counter that seemed very interesting to her. She attacked it with a rag, as if that stain hadn’t been there since Noora started working last year.

“I have no idea what you are talking about.”

Noora couldn’t hide her grin. “Yeah, sure. Real convincing.”

“If I did though,” Sana said without looking up, “I might say that he hasn’t been by this week.”

“That’s too bad. Do you have his number? You could text him and see if he wants to hang out or something.”

“Okay Noora, if I wanted dating advice, I would ask. And I wouldn’t ask you because you don’t even date. And besides he’s not interested in me.”

Noora meant to respond, but she realized they were no longer alone. A customer had come in and was waiting at the till while Noora had been focused on Sana who was focused on the stain. But not just any customer.

She tried to collect herself, to not show her surprise. She didn’t want to think too hard about the reason that she had to collect herself at all.

“Sorry. What can I get for you?”

William held out his travel mug for her to take. “Large dark roast black.”

“So do you only drink hot chocolate with your sister or something?” The words were out of her mouth before she realized what had happened. She was making unnecessary small talk and she didn’t quite know why.

“The hot chocolate is a family tradition,” he said.

“Oh. You can tap you card any time.”

She moved to pour his coffee.

“Actually, I was going to get a bagel too.”

“Shit,” Noora went back to the till and started undoing the charge she had rung up to add the food. “I forgot to ask. Sorry.”

“You make a lot of assumptions about me.”

Noora didn’t look up. She didn’t want to see the smirk she was sure was on his face. “Do you want butter or cream cheese?”

“Cream cheese.”

“Do you want anything else?”

“That’s a loaded question.”

Noora snapped up to him. Sure enough, he was smirking. Damn it if it wasn’t a bit of a cute smirk.

She took a breath before she answered. “Do you want anything else that you can _purchase here_?”

He shook his head which caused his hair to fall over his eye. “Nah, I’m good thanks.” She watched his hand as it pushed his hair straight back. She definitely did not imagine what it would be like to push his hair back for him. The hair almost immediately fell right back where it had been.

“How did you want to pay?” She knew the answer, but she didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of her making more ‘assumptions’ about him.

“Credit.”

She hit the appropriate button and went to take a bagel out of the display case. Looking around, she didn’t see Sana. She must have gone to get something from the back. Or was just getting her payback for Noora asking about Yousef by leaving her with William.

While the bagel was toasting, she got the coffee and brought it over to William. He reached out to take it from her before she could set it down in front of him.

“You said your shifts hadn’t changed.” It was a statement, both showing that he remembered their conversation and also maybe gently prying for an explanation.

“Yeah, Chris has been out sick all week. I think she’ll be back tomorrow.”

“Great, then I’ll just make sure to stop by before 4:00pm.”

“Oh whatever, don’t worry about it. Come whenever.”

That got his attention. He looked at her questioningly. Frankly, she was questioning herself too. He may have been an ass when they met, but he seemed harmless enough. Maybe it was just Amalie that had humanized him to her, allowed her to see him as something other than one of the many assholes who thought it was okay to hit on the barista. It wasn’t like she actually wanted him around more though. She didn’t.

Slowly, she started to notice the corners of his mouth turning upwards. Panicking, she went to go get his bagel before she had to hear him gloat. She had probably made a mistake. But it seemed too late now to go back to banning him from the shop. Never mind that she didn’t even actually have the power to ban anyone from the store.

Instead, she focused on cream cheese. Cream cheese wasn’t interesting, but at least it didn’t make her forget to breathe when it showed up in her life. She put the two sides of the bagel back together, cream cheese spilling out the sides. She sliced it down the middle, shoved it in a to-go bag, and steadied herself once more.

He was watching her, but he wasn’t smiling. She wasn’t sure what that meant. Trying not to seem tentative, she handed him the bagel. The expected thing would be for him to turn and leave. But no.

“Was the other girl right with what she said?”

“Huh?” Noora quickly racked her brain to figure out what the hell he was talking about.

“Your co-worker.”

“Sana?”

“Sure,” he shrugged.

“What about her?”

“She said that you don’t date. Is that true?”

The term gobsmacked didn’t have much place in Noora’s everyday life, but hell if it didn’t describe her perfectly in that moment. She was gobsmacked. She had forgotten all about her conversation with Sana as soon she realized William was standing at the counter. She certainly didn’t realize he had been listening.

She had to say something and the truth was the thing closest at hand. “Yeah. I don’t date.”

He was expressionless. He had been since she came back with the bagel. She didn’t see the next question coming either. “So you don’t have a boyfriend?”

“No.” The word was out of her mouth before she fully processed it. “Wait, that’s none of your damn business!”

Finally, he smiled.

Fuck him, asking her personal questions. And dammit she had answered. Wasn’t she trying to forget about him? When had that gone off the rails?

“Thanks,” he tipped his coffee in her direction and left her standing there, trying to piece together what had just happened. She wasn’t sure if he had thanked her for the coffee or for the information about her love life – or lack thereof.

“That boy is smitten.” Sana’s voice right behind Noora made her jump. Noora had no idea how that girl was so quiet all the time. It definitely wasn’t that Noora was too distracted to hear her come back out front.

“Jeez, you need to calm down,” Sana said.

Noora groaned. “I know.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, this whole thing is much longer now than I ever intended and Noora and William aren't even together yet. More will be coming. I hope y'all are liking it still!  
> You can find me over on tumblr where messages and asks are open: http://obviouslynotadragon.tumblr.com


	6. Chapter 6

Friday was a feel good day for Noora. She had woke up at 5:00am on Thursday, but when she checked her phone she saw a text from Vilde. Chris was up and feeling good and headed to her normal shift. That meant Noora had got to roll back over and sleep until 11:00am. She went to her own regular shift at 4:00 and finally got back to her old routine with Sana.

So when Friday rolled around, she was well rested and happy. And to top it all, it was actually a sunny day in London. Not a cloud in sight. The weekend was ahead of her and Eva had just texted her to plan a girls' night in so her Saturday night was set. It was just the motivation she needed to face one last shift this week.

“It’s a beautiful day Sana,” she announced as she breezed into the shop.

Noora got one raised eyebrow from Sana in reply.

“Right, sorry, I’ll tone it down.” She reached behind Sana to slip one of the aprons off a hook.

“No need to do that. I’m going to take my break now. I’m sure the customers or the boredom will knock your mood down a couple of pegs. Try not to be defeated and curled up in a ball when I get back.”

With no immediate customers to serve, Noora set about making sure all the regular tasks were handled. The counters were already spotless, so no cleaning to do there. She opened the fridge and saw that all types of milk – whole, skim, and soy – were well stocked. The coffee carafes were all at least a quarter full when she peered in the tops of them. The floor seemed to have already been swept. The biscotti jar didn’t need any more added to it.

People watching wasn’t even an option to pass the time. There were exactly two customers currently. They were both working away on laptops, with headphones in, on opposite sides of the shop. Basically, it took all of three minutes for Noora to lose her positive attitude and fall into boredom.

With a quiet sigh, she leaned back against her usual spot behind the till. Twenty six minutes until Sana came back from her break. At least then she would have someone to talk to.

But it only actually took two minutes for a distraction to appear.

Since she had been staring out the window at the otherwise sleepy side street, she saw him the minute he turned the corner. Her hand reached up to flatten her hair before she stopped herself, arm suspended awkwardly at shoulder height. Why the hell was she smoothing her hair for this guy? She quickly let her arm drop and resisted the instinct to pull her crooked apron slightly straighter. Except, she was an employee. She was supposed to look professional. She tugged it a tad to the left as the door opened.

He hadn’t looked in the window when he walked up, but as soon as he walked in the door their eyes met. Noora did everything she could to keep to straight face. This guy did not affect her. A guy like him could definitely not affect her.

“Hi,” they spoke in unison.

William smiled and she could feel the corners of her mouth creeping upwards. Nope. She rolled her lips together to stop that.

“What can I get for you?”

He reached out his usual mug “Large da-”

“-rk roast black,” she finished it along with him, nodding. “Credit?”

“Yeah.”

She rang up the order and poured the coffee, moving to meet him for the handoff at the far end of the counter.

“Thanks,” he said, making no move to head out again.

“No problem.”

She waited expectantly. Surely he would leave. Or at least say something. Or blink. Anything.

She raised her eyebrows, questioning silently “what do you want?”

He raised just one in reply. Damn, why could everyone do that but her? Him and Sana and okay, maybe that wasn’t exactly everyone. Still

She pursed her lips a little, growing a bit impatient.

He smiled, a little, cocky grin.

She huffed.

He chuckled.

She lost it. “Is there something else I can get you?”

And there it was – his actual smile. The sweet, boyish one. Fuck. “No.”

“Then why are you still standing here?”

“Why are you still standing there?” he countered.

“I work here,” she reminded him, sweeping a hand down to gesture to her apron. Which actually was kind of gesturing at her whole body. And dammit if his eyes didn’t take the excuse to look her over.

When his eyes swept back up to meet hers again, he replied “I’m just mostly enjoying the fact that you haven’t kicked me out yet.”

“Yeah well, you haven’t really given me a reason to kick you out.”

“You also haven’t walked away though. You are still standing here. Voluntarily.”

“Again, I work here.”

“You could have made an excuse to go straighten the bagel pile or something though. I think you might actually want to talk to me.”

“The bagels are already straight enough. That’s all. I have nothing else to do.”

“What about tomorrow? Do you have nothing to do tomorrow?”

“I have plans.”

“Real plans? Or ‘I want this guy to leave me alone plans’?”

“Real plans.”

“I’m having a party.”

“Okay. Have fun with that.”

“Tomorrow. You should come.”

“I already told you, I have plans.”

“Change them. Bring whoever. It’s Amalie’s party too by the way, if that helps.”

It did actually. If William throwing a party, she didn’t know what that would be like. Probably outrageous. Maybe actually just a set up to get her to go on a date with him and not a party at all. But Amalie seemed just like most of the girls Noora had gone to school with in sixth form. It would be a normal, rather drunken mess of a party mostly likely. She still had plans though, so why was she even considering it at all?

“What if my plans are a date? Can I bring a boyfriend to your party?”

“You don’t date,” he said slyly.

Fuck. She forgot he knew that.

“Well. Whatever. Thanks for the invite, but I really do have plans.”

“So you keep saying.”

He leaned over the counter and Noora instinctively took half a step back. He reached out, but not towards her. He stretched to grab a marker off the counter by the expresso machine. Then he plucked one of the coffee cup sleeves from the pile and ripped it open along the side.

He scribbled something on the back side and handed it to her. Automatically, she reached out to take it. Just like taking cash from any other customer. Except it wasn’t cash. It was a phone number.

“If your plans get cancelled, or if you change your mind, text me. I’ll send you our address.”

She reached into her brain for a witty retort, but she came up blank. She just couldn’t think straight around him. He didn’t seem to expect a reply though, as he turned to leave. He stopped at the door and looked at her, in the same spot still clutching the phone number confusedly.

“I’ll see you tomorrow. Hopefully.”

And he left.

Noora shook her head a little to snap her back to her senses. What the fuck was she doing taking that guy’s number.

Looking around the shop, she realized she wasn’t the only one who had been mildly mesmerized by him. The girl sitting in the corner of the shop, who had previously been diligently working away on her laptop, had pulled one headphone out of her ear and was blatantly watching his ass through the window as he walked back down the street. As soon as he turned the corner, she put her headphone right back in and returned her focus to her screen.

Noora started walking towards the rubbish bin. It wasn’t like she had any intention of going to that party tomorrow. So she definitely had no use for his number. And yet, hand hovering over the bin, she wasn’t letting go of the sleeve.

“Fuck it,” she muttered, grabbing her purse instead and shoving the number inside. She would find the willpower to throw it away later.

When Sana got back twenty minutes later, the first thing she asked was “Still feeling all Little Miss Sunshine?”

“No.” Noora definitely was not that anymore. She was much too frazzled.

“Told ya so. The boredom will get you every time.”

If only it had just been the boredom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the crazy long delay. I finally got a short little chapter written! Huzzah! Maybe this will kick my butt back into gear. (maybe not. we'll see)  
> If tumblr is your thing, you can find me here: https://obviouslynotadragon.tumblr.com/


	7. Chapter 7

Hitting the home button her phone, Noora checked the time on the screen. Eva could be showing up any minute. Not that it really mattered. Eva didn’t care if Noora’s flat was tiny or if she was in pajamas or not. It was a girls’ night in after all. Still, Noora cared. She ran a brush through her hair and checked her appearance in her vanity mirror. Lip balm. She needed lip balm.

There had to be some lip balm around somewhere, but it wasn’t sitting out on her vanity for some reason. There was definitely one in her purse though, so Noora went to go grab it from the top of her dresser. Reaching one arm inside, she felt around. Wallet. Keys. Lipstick. Something strange.

She pulled it out. She had forgotten. The coffee sleeve, with an 11 digit number written on it. Fuck.

She wasn’t going to that party of his tonight, so she really didn’t need his number. What other use would she ever have for it anyways? There was no reason to keep it. She should probably just throw it out. And yet her traitor feet moved Noora back towards to her vanity where she had left her phone.

She had absolutely no need for his number. But it couldn’t hurt to just have it anyways. Unlocking her phone, she opened up a new contact form. Trying not to think too much about why she was bothering with it, she typed in the mobile number. But then there was the name space. Noora’s phone was well organized and all her contacts were listed with their full names. She didn’t know William’s last name though.

She typed ‘Willhelm’. At least she would never confuse him with any other Williams she might add to her phone.

The building system buzzed from outside Noora’s room. She scurried to let Eva in to the building, dropping the coffee sleeve in her bin along the way.

Five minutes later, she was curled up on one end of the couch facing her friend.

“I didn’t really need a proper wine glass, you know,” Eva said.

“We’re 19. I think we should maybe drink a little less from the bottle and a little more with glasses. Like adults.”

Eva scoffed. “Adults? Yeah right. I live at home, have changed courses three times in the last year, and shrunk my favourite jumper last week. And you wouldn’t know anything about drinking out of the bottle anyways.”

Noora couldn’t deny that. Though she had taken a wine glass to match Eva, her glass was filled with sparkling juice. “Whatever. Still.”

“Ladies!” Eskild’s room burst open and he appeared in the doorway. “What gossip am I missing out on?”

Eva jumped up from the couch to greet Eskild with a hug. “We haven’t got that far yet. Why? Do you have any good gossip to share with us?”

He shrugged. “Perhaps. Maybe not. Depends if you want to share a glass of that wine with me.”

Eva laughed. “Sure, help yourself. Noora isn’t going to help me with it anyways and a whole bottle is probably too much for me on a night in.”

“A night in?!” Eskild gasped. “What do you mean you two are staying in on a Saturday night?”

“I know the concept must seem novel to you, but a “night in” means we are not going out,” Noora explained slowly.

Eskild glared. “I know what a night in is, thank you very much. In fact, I planned one tonight.”

“You planned a night in?” Noora asked.

“By yourself?” questioned Eva.

Eskild rolled his eyes. “No, not by myself you sillies. I invited someone over. So you have to leave.” He sat down between them on the couch, putting one arm around each of them.

“Hey! You didn’t even tell me and now you expect me to leave?” Noora cried indignantly.

“I didn’t think it would be an issue,” Eskild shrugged. “You have friends. You have plans. I thought you would be out. The key was getting Linn to leave. That took three days of begging and some swiping through Tinder on her behalf, but sure enough, I did it. She is out on a date of her own. So now I need you to get out cause he is going to be here by like half nine.”

“Eskild!”

“Noora!”

 “You can’t kick us out of my own flat!”

“Pleeeeeease Noora? Just this once.”

Noora huffed and looked at Eva who shrugged in return. No help there. Eva was never going to get involved in a flatmate fight.

“Where do you expect us to go?” Noora asked.

“It’s Saturday. Surely you young, hot girls can find a party somewhere!”

Noora bit her lip. For once, she actually knew about a party happening. But she really didn’t want to go down that road. She really didn’t. She was not going to text William at the last minute. She didn’t even want to go to his party anyways. Really.

“Do you know of anywhere fun Eva?”

“Maybe,” Eva said, taking a sip of her wine. “There is this guy…”

The bait was there, but Noora knew she didn’t have to take it. Eva was going to tell her anyways.

“I’ve been chatting to him for the last few days. He seems like he probably isn’t a serial killer. And he is super cute. Like seriously hot.”

Noora motioned for her to speed it along.

“Okay. Okay. So he mentioned he is going to this party tonight. And he invited me. But I told him I already had plans with a friend. And he made a joke about threesomes, but then said seriously that I could bring whoever. It is going to be a big party anyways. So if you wanted, I could message him. Get the address.”

Looking back and forth between Eva and Eskild, Noora knew she had no choice but to give in. Eskild was giving her his best puppy dog eyes and she could tell Eva was thirsting after this guy.

“Where did you mean this guy?”

“Bumble. So like, marginally better than Tinder, right?”

“Do I have to get dressed up for this party?”

Eva shook her head. “That pinstripe top is perfect.”

“So cute,” Eskild concurred.

Noora pushed herself off the couch, setting her wine glass on the coffee table. “Let me put on some lipstick. You get the address. What’s his name anyways?”

“Chris”

Noora peeled an overly grateful Eskild off to go grab her stuff from her room. This is not how she had planned on her night going.

 

***

 

“Wow,” both girls said in unison, facing a newly built high rise. The outside was cased in floor to ceiling windows with sleek private balconies hanging off of every unit. A new build like this in the heart of London screamed money. It was only a few blocks from the coffee shop, but in the opposite direction from where Noora lived. Once Chris had sent Eva the address and they googled it, they had decided to walk the 25 minutes instead of bothering with the tube. But this felt much farther though than 25 minutes away from the world Noora lived in.

“And he didn’t even hint in his Tinder bio that he was Filthy Rich,” Eva whistled in disbelief.

“It probably has a pool,” mused Noora.

“Oh, and maybe a hottub!”

“I’m not saying you should date this guy for the perks because that would be totally wrong and selling out, but…” Noora raised her eyebrows suggestively.

Eva laughed and Noora joined her, as they stopped gawking and made their way to the front door.

“Let me guess,” the doorman said when they walked into the lobby, “lower penthouse? Suite #3?”

Eva checked her phone, “Yupp.”

“Go on up. Have fun until I get complaints and have to shut the party down.”

“He’s an old hand at this,” Eva whispered to Noora as they stepped into the sleek chrome lift.

They could hear the party even before the lift stopped. When the doors opened, they were greeted by the sight of a couple snogging up against an (presumably expensive) abstract painting on the opposite wall.

“Well, we are definitely in the right place,” Eva commented, watching the couple who were completely indifferent to the presence of the girls.

“Are we though?” Noora muttered, thinking wistfully of her original plans for a night in.

The followed the general cacophony to the open door at the end of the hallway. The apartment was packed, so Noora took Eva’s had as they dove in to the crowd.

“Should we look for Chris first or drinks?” Eva was practically screaming in order for Noora to hear her.

Noora shrugged. It didn’t matter to her.

While Eva scanned the crowd for any sign of her Tinder guy, Noora took in the scene in front of her. It was earl, so only a few people seemed totally smashed, but that surely wouldn’t take long to increase. Everyone had a drink in hand and a game of beer pong was taking place on a chrome and glass dining room table. That table was going to be a sticky disaster within minutes.

The open concept space would have probably looked like a magazine spread if it weren’t for all the people. The windows stretched from floor to ceiling all along the living room wall. She couldn’t tell how the view was with the lights and the people, but there was an open door to the balcony if she wanted to see later. The couches were sleek and grey and already filled to capacity with people sitting on the arms and leaning against the backs. One wall was left blank with a projector indicating its purpose. The rest all had tasteful modern art prints and canvases on them. The kitchen had frosted glass on the doors of the grey cupboards with pure white stone countertops below. Those counters had bottles and cups and bags of crisps spread over almost every inch of them. The whole place was going to be a disaster in the morning, and Noora was glad she wouldn’t have to see it.

Following Eva’s lead, they made their way through the masses and towards the kitchen. Next to the fridge was half a stack of plastic cups. Eva picked up a bunch, grabbed two from the middle and put the rest back. Handing one to Noora, she started perusing the assortment of booze that was lying around. At a party like this, anything was fair game (but also a bit sketchy).

Noora considered rummaging through the freezer for ice, but it seemed weird. She wasn’t even invited to this party. Not that is probably mattered. Eva’s Tinder guy couldn’t possibly know everyone here. Instead, she filled the cup with tap water while Eva mixed her cocktail.

“Should we do a lap and try to find your guy?”

Together, they made their way around the kitchen island and headed towards the couches. At the same time, someone left their spot the couch arm and Eva hopped forward to steal it.

“If you’re comfy here for a minute,” Noora half-yelled to Eva, “can you hold my drink and I’ll be right back?”

Eva nodded and Noora handed her the cup.

“Don’t move, okay?”

She raised Noora’s cup in agreement while taking a long sip of her own.

There was a start of an L shaped hallway between the kitchen and the dining room. Noora could see several doors leading off the sides and one of them had to be a toilet. Best to go now before people started puking later. The party had already taken over the hallway, but the third door down seemed to have more of a line outside it than the others. Heading for that one, Noora pulled out her phone to check the time. 22:10.

Someone gently grabbed her shoulder and Noora automatically stuck her free hand out to stop her from colliding with them. An apology was half way out of her mouth when she looked up at the person she ran in to.

“You came,” William said. His hand was still on her shoulder while hers hovered in front of her between them.

What the fuck? 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking so long to update, life is crazy. I was writing one big long chapter, but it got too long for my taste so I decided to split it in two after all. Hence the cliffhanger - sorry! Next half should be coming soon, except I keep adding more sooo.... sorry? Please don't hate me. 
> 
> Anyways, when I'm not updating you can find me here: https://obviouslynotadragon.tumblr.com/  
> Asks and messages are always open over there.


	8. Chapter 8

“What are you doing here? I thought you were throwing a –” Noora stopped talking as the pieces clicked together in her head. Here was William. Standing in front of her. In a just-tight-enough, plain, black t-shirt. Because it was his party. She was at his party. What the fuck.

“Shockingly, I usually show up to my own parties.” The smile that she had been greeted with had partially dropped away, replaced by mild confusion. “What were you expecting?”

Someone ran into Noora’s other shoulder and she realized she was blocking the middle of the hallway. She stepped to the side. William moved with her. His hand left her shoulder and moved to rest against the wall, partly enveloping her.

“I didn’t know this was your party.”

“Then why are you here?” He was teasing her, as if he didn’t believe that she showed up here by accident.

“I came with someone.”

“And who exactly invited you to my apartment?”

“A guy named Chris?”

Any humour William may have had abruptly departed. “Chris?” he asked, entirely stone-faced.

“Yeah?”

He pushed off the wall and walked right past Noora, back towards the great room. She thought he might have muttered something, but she couldn’t hear over the noise. Unsure what else to do, she followed him. Noora stopped beside him. People jostling by her on her free side as she examined the scene in front of her.

Eva was exactly where Noora had left her. The only change was that now she had one leg wrapped around some guy. Her arms were wrapped around his neck, but she was still holding a cup in each hand.

William pointed right at Eva. “That Chris? The one snogging some random girl? You came here for him?”

“Ah, so that’s Chris,” she commented, examining her friend’s date. She couldn’t get a good look with Eva blocking her view.

William stepped in front of her again, running both hands through his hair. There was barely any space between them and Noora was acutely aware of just how close he was. That was just because the party was so full. Surely. He leaned down toward her, presumably so that he didn’t have to yell. “Will you please tell me what’s going on?”

“Okay.”

“Let’s go somewhere quieter.”

“That somewhere better not be your bedroom, Willhelm,” she scoffed.

He rolled his eyes and gestured at the windows. “I meant outside. The balcony.”

Noora wasn’t sure at all that that was what he had meant initially, but she was willing to roll with it. He turned around and walked ahead of her, but Noora stopped by Eva’s side. Standing on her tip toes, she peered into the cup nearest her without disrupting the couple. Not clear, not her water. She grabbed the other drink which got Eva’s attention.

“I’ll be outside. You good?”

“Yeah,” Eva said.

Noora heard Chris offering Eva another drink, but didn’t hear Eva’s reply as she walked away.

Whether or not there had been people on the balcony thirty seconds ago, Noora couldn’t say. But now, only William was out there, leaning against the railings. Waiting for her.

“So how do you know Chris?” he asked, as she closed the door behind her. The party noise dulled but didn’t disappear. “Or do you even know Chris?”

Noora shook her head and she moved to stand beside him. Instead of facing him, she looked out over the railing. Below was what Noora assumed was a garden, but it was too dark to see. The next few buildings were all shorter, giving a pretty decent view of the surrounding blocks, lit by flat lights and street lights below.

“That random girl? That’s my friend Eva. Chris is some guy she has been talking to on Tinder. He invited her. I came with.”

“So what you’re saying,” he dragged out slowly, “is that you would rather tag along on a friend’s Tinder date than come to my party?”

“I wouldn’t call their thing a date. More like a hookup. It’s Tinder.”

“You didn’t answer the question.”

“I didn’t?” Noora smiled sweetly at him, the picture of innocence.

“You didn’t.”

She debated if she should just say yes, she didn’t want to come. Even though it wasn’t exactly true. Would it be better to just shut him down? To get him to stop trying?

“I had plans, like I told you. A girls’ night in. But my flatmate decided to kick us out at the last minute. We didn’t have anything planned, but Eva had an invite to some party. So we just showed up.”

William didn’t reply. She took a sip of her water and let the silence fall over them. Without turning her head, Noora snuck a glance at him. He was watching her. As usual. That boy really had no shame. It was a bit ridiculous, how unabashed he was. But she didn’t do anything about it. She didn’t go inside. Neither did he.

Eventually, William spoke first “How about a game?”

“What kind of game?”

“Truth or dare.”

“That’s cliché. And I don’t do dares.”

“Just truth then.”

Noora considered it. She was here with him anyways. And she barely knew him. Which was both a good and a bad thing.

She turned to face him, one arm still braced against the railing. “I want three vetoes.”

“Then I get three too.”

Fair enough. “Why don’t your parents care about you and Amalie throwing a massive party?” Not too shallow, not to deep. She figured this was a safe enough place to start off.

“They don’t live here.” Or maybe it was a deeper question than she thought.

“…They don’t live here?”

“I think that’s two questions without giving me a turn.”

She crossed her arms. “No, Willhelm. You didn’t properly answer the question and you know it.”

“Mother doesn’t live in England. Father has his own house. Just Amalie and I live here.”

It was more of an answer, even if it opened up a lot more questions. It wasn’t her turn though.

“If you hadn’t had plans tonight, would you have come?”

Noora bit her lip, pondering. If she hadn’t had plans with Eva, would she have come? Probably not. But if Eskild had still kicked her out? And she had nowhere else to go?

“Maybe.” It was honest. It was the best she could do. “Do you always hit on baristas?”

He took a small step closer to her. “Not anymore.”

The smoldering look he gave her left no room for confusion about what he meant. Not anymore because of her.

“William!”

Whatever moment may have been happening was cut short as Amalie burst onto the balcony.

“Some assholes are about to start throwing punches. You have to kick them – oh, Noora! Hi! William, you’ve got to kick them out now.”

Skirting around both Noora and Amalie, he headed inside.

“Hi Amalie.” Noora knew she sounded off. Like a slightly dishevelled person who had been caught in the middle of something. Which she wasn’t and which she hadn’t been.

“I didn’t know you were coming tonight.” It was a question as much as a statement.

“Me neither,” Noora said.

“Do you need anything? Help yourself to whatever booze you want.”

“Thanks, but I’m good for now,” she said, raising her cup as proof.

“I’m going to make sure no one else is starting shit. Find me later, kay?”

Noora smiled and Amalie headed back in. Having no real reason to stay outside, Noora followed her in. A couple of guys with a pack of smokes immediately headed out as soon as Noora stepped through the door.

A quick look showed Eva was not still on the couch, or pressed up against it. Sliding around and slipping through the partiers, Noora checked the kitchen yet. No Eva there either.

“Looking for me?” he whispered in her ear, pressing up against her hair.

Noora almost jumped out of her skin, having no idea William had come up behind her. She clutched her chest and could feel her heart thundering from the surprise. William reached out and gently clasped her arm to steady her while she tried to steady her breathing.

“Sorry,” he said.

Noora shook her head. “I don’t know where Eva and Chris are.”

William turned and peered over the mass of heads, searching. Without letting go of her. His height gave him a significant advantage over Noora’s limited view. After a full 360, the looks back at her.

“Come with me.” He slid his hand down her arm and took her hand in his. He took a couple steps before she followed along.

The din quieted a little as they turn down the L shaped hallway, and headed to the door at the end. With his free hand, William knocked loudly, paused for a few seconds and then opened the door himself.

The scene was front of them is less than surprising to Noora. Eva was straddling Chris on a king size bed. Mercifully, all their clothes were still on. Eva gave Noora a little wave.

“Hey William.” Chris sounded totally nonchalant, despite the fact his hands were still on Eva’s hips, pinning her to him.

“Get your own room,” William replied flatly.

“This isn’t your room?” Eva said, turning back to Chris. She dismounted and stood up.

“Not technically.”

“Not technically or in any other sense,” William added. “Get up, Chris.”

Noora looked around the room, while Chris stood and Eva straightened her skirt. There were two doors on one wall, presumably to a closet and a toilet, declaring this to be the master bedroom. The far wall was presumably floor to ceiling windows, but they were covered by floor to ceiling silver curtains. The bedding was all plain white, contrasting the sleek black bedroom furniture. An acoustic guitar sat in far corner next to the dresser.

“Let’s go grab some drinks.” Chris came over and slung one arm around William’s shoulders. “These lovely girls can gossip about us while were gone.” And then he winked at Eva, pulling William with him as he left.

Eva collapsed backwards to sit on the edge of the bed. Reaching over to grab her cup off the nightstand, she patted the spot next to her. Noora took the hint and perched beside her.

After a long sip, Eva asked “So whose place is this?”

“William’s.”

“Who’s William?”

Noora pointed in the general direction of the rest of the party. “The one who went with Chris.”

“Oh.” Eva seemed to need a minute to take this information in. Noora was guessing that cup had been refilled a few times. “He’s fit.”

She wasn’t sure which him Eva was referring to. “He is.”

“Would you hate me if I left with Chris?”

“Nope.”

“But then you’ll be all alone.” Eva leaned over and rested her head on Noora’s shoulder.

Maybe. Maybe not. But Noora didn’t feel the need to correct Eva on that point right now. “I have to go to bed soon anyways. It’s fine.”

“Okay.”

A few minutes later, the guys came back carrying two drinks each. Before the guys had even reached them, Eva hopped off the bed and gestured for Chris to turn around.

“Since this isn’t even your bedroom or whatever,” she said, plucking one of the drinks from him and guiding him out.

Noora made no move to get up and William sat down beside her. He held one cup out to her, and she took it.

“We got interrupted before,” he stated. “Where were we exactly?”

“I have no idea,” Noora answered honestly. She had been confused earlier about if she should even keep his number. But now. Now she was totally fucking lost. Completely confused. Where on earth had her judgement gone and was it ever going to come back? Because she didn’t think she was supposed to feel this electric just sitting next to a total fuckboy. And yet…

Noora felt her phone buzz in her pocket. Depositing her untouched new drink next to her water on the nightstand, she pulled her phone out.

_Hiii. Can you please stay at Eva’s tonight??? I’ll owe you!_

Eskild. Oh Eskild. She considered for a moment and then typed back.

_You have to do your own dishes. For a week. Right after you use them. But yes, okay._

“I have to talk to Eva for a quick second. I’ll be right back.”

William looked like he wanted to ask details, but didn’t. So she hurried out, making her way down the hallway to find Eva for what felt like the ninth time that night. But she wasn’t there.

She wasn’t against the couch. Or in the kitchen. Or on the balcony. Or in the bathroom. Or in the hallway outside the flat. She was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Long time, no update. This is clearly going to be my norm and I apologize, but anyways, a party! This party chapter keeps getting longer and longer so I had to cut it up again. It it filled with clichés? Yes. It that canon? I think so. 
> 
> When I'm not writing, find me here: https://obviouslynotadragon.tumblr.com/


	9. Chapter 9

Noora pulled out her phone to text Eva. She already had a response from Eskild telling her that she was the best and that he loved her and yes, he would absolutely do his dishes he promised. Groaning, Noora sent Eva a ‘where are you?’ text while making her way back to William’s room.

He was right where she had left him, with his own phone out. He put it down on the bed behind him as soon as he saw her.

“Is everything okay now?” he asked.

Noora sighed. “Actually…” She didn’t know how to finish that sentence though. Actually, I’m homeless for the night? That wasn’t a thing she could say.

William sighed back. “Let me guess. You have to leave, right?”

“That’s not even close.” William flinched in surprise and followed her with his gaze as she sat back down on the bed next to him. Close to him. But not too close. Where should she start? “I swear, the whole world is in cahoots tonight.”

William nodded. “So much so that I’m not even going to tease you for using the word cahoots.” His voice was full of mirth though, it was basically the same as teasing.

Half-heartedly, Noora rolled her eyes. “Okay so…”

William shifted to turn to face her more directly. He clasped his hands and dropped them in his lap, looking at her earnestly, expectantly. “So. Tell me.”

“I told you my flatmate kicked us out of my place tonight?” She paused until he hummed agreement and she continued. “Well, he texted me asking if I could stay at Eva’s tonight and I said sure, except Eva had just asked if I minded if she left with Chris and I had said yes to that too, so then I went to go get Eva’s keys from her, but I guess her and Chris wasted no time hightailing it out of here, so I didn’t get her keys and I already promised Eskild that I wouldn’t come home and he is going to be so upset when I text him back, but if I don’t then I’m screwed.”

Noora took a deep breath in and waited for William to respond. But he didn’t. “That’s it. That’s the whole thing.”

Williams’ lips twitched upwards the tiniest bit, as if he was fighting back a smile. “If that’s it, then there’s no problem at all.”

“How is this not a problem?!”

“You’ll stay here.” He said it completely nonchalant. As if it were an obvious fact and no big deal. It was definitely a big deal. She had no intention of sleeping with William.

“I can’t stay here,” she spluttered.

“No, you can’t stay at Eva’s,” he corrected her. “Or at your place. There is nothing at all keeping you from staying here.”

Why was she even having this conversation with him? It was ridiculous. She needed to just suck it up and tell Eskild she was coming home and deal with his pouting for a whole week because she seriously could not stay here.

“I’m not sleeping with you,” she reaffirmed, both to herself and William.

He shrugged. “Then you’ll sleep on the couch. And I’ll make breakfast in the morning. What breakfast food do you like?”

She was shocked. She was turning him down for sex and he was still offering her his couch as if it was no big deal.

“I should just go home,” she said. “I have work in the morning so I have to be up early, and I really should be going to bed like now because it’s already late and I can’t really sleep on a couch in the middle of a party anyways.”

William picked up his phone and turned the screen on. “I give it about five minutes before this party gets shut down anyways. Then everyone’ll be gone and you can sleep. I’ll drive you home in the morning.”

“You don’t have to. Like I said, I’m getting up early. At 6.”

“But, you’ll stay,” he grinned.

And just like that, she had stopped fighting about staying and moved on to resisting a ride home.

“Yeah, I guess I will.”

“Great! Now, I promised you the party would end in five minutes, right?”

“Right,” Noora agreed.

“Okay then.” William stood up and held his hand out to her. Noora took it and let him pull her up. “Come with me.”

As soon as the bedroom door opened, Noora was overwhelmed by the noise. It had only been three minutes since she looked for Eva, but somehow the ruckus of the party had seemed to fade away while they talked.

William led her to the kitchen, dropping her hand only to lightly grab her hips and swivel her so that she was standing in a corner, facing out to see the whole kitchen and most of the living space. Letting go of one hip, he pivoted so he was also facing out, his other arm sliding behind her so that he was holding her gently against his side.

He leaned in close. “Take out your phone.”

She had no idea where he was going with this, but she complied. Holding it up between the two of them, she looked at him expectantly.

“Okay, now set a timer for five minutes.”

She complied and clicked the screen off again. If she wasn’t going home tonight, she needed to save her battery.

“Now, look around,” he gestured vaguely towards the rest of his flat. “Someone in here is going to do something so stupid that Paul is going to have to break up this party.”

“Paul?”

“Our night security guy. You have to guess what he is going to chide me for when he gets up here in...” he reached out and turned her unlock screen on to show the timer. “In four minutes and thirty six seconds. So guess quickly.”

Well now. Here was a challenge. Noora tried to assess the menagerie of people spread out in front of her. Seven other people were close by, pouring drinks and throwing empty beer bottles into the sink. One guy seemed like he didn’t need another from the way he was struggling to stay upright, but if the party was getting shut down soon, Noora wasn’t going to interfere.

Beer pong raged on at the kitchen table with a guys versus girls match that the guys seemed to be losing by two cups. The cluster of people around the couches was so dense that Noora couldn’t see the faces of almost anyone. A couple were walking out on to the balcony, another were pressed up against each other and a framed print on the wall behind them.

Honestly, she had no idea. Enough people seemed drunk enough that they were liable to do something dumb, but no one really stood out. There was a group of guys near the door all yelling over each other. Noora figured they had to be able to be heard by the neighbours, so she pointed at them.

“Why?” William asked.

“Proximity to your hallway and lack of volume control.”

He shook his head. “It is never that boring.” He pointed to the beer pong game. “My bet is that those guys lose and then get in a fight over who fucked up more. But let’s wait and see.”

Noora checked her phone again. Three minutes and twelve seconds. So they watched and they waited.

She tried to follow the end of the beer pong game as the guys were down to one cup while the girls still had four. One guy missed his shot, but his buddy sunk his, leading to high fives while a ginger girl downed the lost cup. Noora’s group of guys started to partially break up, with two of them headed towards the kitchen for refills.

Mostly though, Noora resisted the urge to lean farther into William. His hand was resting softly on her hip, his arm led a path across her back, and she could feel every bit of it. His hip was just a smidge away from hers and it would take the smallest movement to close that gap. To press up beside him.

She wasn’t even supposed to be at this party.

The front door opening grabbed her attention. Sure enough, the doorman she had seen earlier was carefully stepping into the room, looking around. William started moving forward even before the doorman’s eyes found him in the crowd. He didn’t let go of Noora though, guiding her forward alongside him. Her five minute alarm starting buzzing.

Paul seemed to let out a breath as he caught sight of the pair coming towards him. “William,” he said, reaching out one hand. William grabbed Paul’s hand in a handshake-fistbump thing.

“What was it this time Paul?”

“A drunk girl just threw up in the elevator, which means I’m going to have to shut this down now.”

Noora and William responded at the same time.

“Is she okay?”

“Oh god, Eva? Was it Eva?”

The security guard turned his attention fully to Noora for the first time, “Eva?”

“Umm, brunette girl? Probably with William’s friend Chris?”

“Oh Chris, yeah no he wasn’t there. And the girl was tall and blonde. She had a girlfriend with her taking her home.”

Noora sighed in relief and William responded by holding her a little tighter, closing the gap to hold her firmly against his side.

“I’ll hurry everyone out Paul, sorry about the mess.” William shook his hand again. As Paul left, William turned to Noora.

“Unless you really like kicking drunk people out, you might as well go hide in my room for a few minutes while I drag some belligerent idiots out of here. Dig around in my top couple drawers if you want to find something comfier to sleep in.”

Oh god, Noora just knew she was blushing. Yeah, dig around in his drawers for something comfy to slip into. That was totally a thing she could do. She just hummed her assent, though he probably couldn’t hear her over the party, and walked away before he noticed how red she was.

Before she had made it past the kitchen, the music was abruptly cut off. In the slightly reduced noise, William started to yell that it was time to pack it in. Noora just kept walking, but heard Amalie join in, screaming that people didn’t have to go to go home, but they had to get the bloody hell out until next time.

She closed William’s door behind herself and leaned by against it, taking a deeper breath than she should have needed. Dammit, why was she losing her cool like this? It wasn’t like she had never been held by a guy before. And that’s all there had been. So why was she so… bothered? Oh fuck, William had her hot and bothered over nothing. They hadn’t even done anything. And yet…

She started to run her hands through her hair but caught herself before she messed it up. It wasn’t like she had a brush here to fix it.

She felt so out of place. She should have probably just gone the hell home a while ago. Standing awkwardly in the middle of William’s room, Noora had no idea what to do with herself. She was so out of place.

With nothing else to do, Noora tentatively walked over to the chest of drawers. She was actually about to go through his drawers. What the hell? But sleeping fully dressed was never really that comfy, and maybe it would feel less like a walk of shame in the morning and more like a sleepover if she just folded her clothes nicely tonight so that they wouldn’t be all rumpled. Not that this was at all like any sleepover she had had growing up.

The top drawer held piles of neatly folded shirts. She flipped through a few of them carefully before grabbing a plain light blue one. Closing the top drawer, she opened the second one down. This one held sweatpants and shorts. Picking up the top pair of sweats, Noora held them up and couldn’t help but laugh. There was no chance they were going to fit her. No way that any of William’s pants were going to fit her. Regardless, Noora kept them and shut the drawer.

Guessing correctly which door led to the toilet in his suite, Noora stepped inside to change. She folded her pants and blouse neatly and stacked them on the counter next to the sink. For half a second she consider taking her bra off, no one likes sleeping in bras, but quickly rejected the idea. That was too far. This wasn’t like crashing at Eva’s.

She pulled the shirt on first. It was big, but cozy, and not so big that she was swimming in it or anything. Stepping into the grey sweats though, she knew it was hopeless. They had an elastic waistband, but didn’t come close to fitting to her hips. She rolled the top down a few times, to see if they extra bulk would help. Not enough. Sighing, she took them off and folded them back up.

Looking herself over in the mirror, Noora considered for a minute. The shirt covered her bum, but not much more. She would have to look again in the drawer and see if maybe there was a smaller size somewhere at the bottom. She still had all her makeup on, but considering she wasn’t going to get that many hours of sleep tonight before she had to get up for work, one night with makeup on would not wreck her skin.

Pulling the door open, she stepped into the bedroom at just the same moment the main door opened.

“Noora?” William called softly as he stepped in.

His eyes swept the room, and he froze the moment they landed on her. His gaze swept down her body before snapping back to meet her eyes. She tried to not shift nervously, she was totally covered after all, but gripped her clothes a big tighter.

William dragged one hand over his face, pausing before he spoke. “There are pants in the second drawer if you uh… want some?”

Had Noora ever heard him stutter before? She didn’t think so. He was usually so sure, but right now he was seriously frazzled. She held up his sweatpants a little to show him.

“They didn’t fit. Like, at all.”

“Oh umm…” he stammered, rubbing the back of his neck. “Amalie probably has something you can borrow? Yeah, actually let me go ask her.” He nodded to himself and backed out the door, leaving it open.

The flat was quiet now and Noora could hear him call out to his sister in the hallway. She opened the drawer to put the sweats back as Amalie responded.

“Yeah?”

She left her actual clothes on top of the chest of drawers and walked over to the door to listen.

“Do you have some pajama bottoms Noora can borrow?”

“Uhh, since when have you ever needed clothes for a girl to stay over?”

“It’s not like – she’s just crashing here tonight. She’s sleeping on the couch.”

“Wait, what? No, Sarah is sleeping on the couch.”

“What are you talking about Amalie? Why would Sarah be sleeping on the couch?”

“Because her and John had a fight and she drank too much and she is literally already passed out?”

“Okay, but I told Noora she could stay here. Can’t Sarah just sleep with you?”

“Yeah, if she wasn’t already dead to the world, but she is so like, can’t Noora just sleep with you?”

“She doesn’t want – I told her – forget it. I’ll figure it out.”

“Sorry, I’ll grab you some pajamas though.”

Noora’s mind was racing, she couldn’t help it. Damn Eskild, this was all this fault.

It was well after 23:00. She did the mental math. She had to be up by 6:00. She was like half an hour away from home. That didn’t add up to a hell of a lot of hours of sleep if she left now.

William almost ran into her as he stepped through the doorway.

He held out a pair of cotton shorts to her. “Amalie gave me these for you. But there’s a problem. Her friend is actually staying on the couch. I’m sorry. I promise I didn’t know. I wasn’t trying to trick you.”

He seemed so earnest, so sincere trying to convince her that he wasn’t fucking with her. “Yeah, it’s okay, I know. I overheard.”

“I can’t drive you home tonight, but I can call you a car if you aren’t comfortable. I’ll pay.”

“It’s pretty late,” Noora said, thinking over if she should say what she was about to say. “Do you mind if I just stay here?” She gestured to his bed behind her.

He completely schooled his face free of any reaction. “Are you sure?”

She tried to be more casual than she felt. “Yeah, I mean, I’ll just stay on my side and you’ll just stay on your side, right?”

“Your side?” William finally broke and started to smile for the first time in the conversation. “It’s my bed. They’re both my sides.”

“Not tonight.”

She grabbed the shorts from him and backed up towards the closer side that she was claiming as her own.

“I’ll just be a minute,” he said, heading over to his chest of drawers. As soon as he grabbed some clothes and disappeared into the toilet, Noora pulled on the shorts he had given her. They were short, but longer than the shirt at least. And they fit.

She pulled back the covers and crawled underneath. She double checked her morning alarm was set, and then set a second as a backup just in case. There was enough battery left that she figured she would be okay until she got home.

And then. Then she had nothing to do, except try to not react when William came back into the room. Dressed in the same sweats she had tried earlier. And nothing else. Damn.

Her first instinct was to avert her gaze. Well, first instinct once she realized to had been staring at what was definitely definition all over his chest and arms. But then it just seemed like she was avoiding him after staring, which she was, so she braved actually looking at him (his face that is) again. He smirked back. Ugh.

“You stole my favourite shirt, so I hope you don’t mind me sleeping without one.”

Noora shook her head. “No, but somehow I doubt this just happens to be your favourite shirt.” She fingered the collar of it for emphasis.

William muttered something. Since when did he mutter? William did not mutter.

“What?”

“Nothing,” he said, pulling back the covers on his side. “Good night Noora.”

“Night William.”

He reached over and turned out the lights, sending the room into sudden darkness. Noora rolled on her side, facing away from him, and tried to get comfy. She knew she need to get to sleep as soon as possible. The morning would be here too soon. But she was pretty sure what he had mumbled was “it is now.” And she really didn’t know how she was supposed to sleep at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the extreme delay due to life. This update finally brought to you by me being sick all weekend. It will probably be a while before I get more time to write, but this fic is neither finished nor abandoned. If you have stuck with me through these months, you are amazing <3
> 
> While I'm generally not updating, I am always on tumblr here: https://obviouslynotadragon.tumblr.com/


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